Faith
by Beliel
Summary: A sweet story Wufei discovers an unexpected gift on Christmas Eve.


Note: Not beta-read. Sorry..._  
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_**Faith**  
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_A.C. 200  
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_Christmas Eve_

Wufei sighed deeply, closing his eyes as he tucked his car keys into his suit pocket. Opening his eyes again he glared at the sky; thick with clouds and reflecting the cities' lights, the sky was actually fairly bright, even though it was approaching midnight. Curling his lip a little he looked away from the clouds; the reflection of the light only served to remind him of the date, and the party he had only just barely managed to escape twenty minutes earlier.

He had no idea why Une insisted on bringing him to the more formal functions, he suspected it was a perverse sort of revenge on the woman's part, though he wasn't quite sure for which of his crimes she had decided to inflict upon him the torment of enduring simpering dignitaries. It had been nice, seeing Qautre there, but he'd hardly had a chance to talk to the blond; he rarely did. Duo, of course, had been wildly amused that Une had decided his attendance was mandatory at the function, and Trowa had just smirked. Wufei had, at the time, felt irrationally like punching the both of them; as he stood in the cold, beside his car, he wasn't quite sure why he _hadn't_ wiped the smug looks off their faces.

Deciding that standing like an idiot, in the cold, in a dress suit, and glaring at nothing in particular, was not the most productive way to spend what remained of his evening, Wufei stepped up to the sidewalk. Turning to walk towards his apartment Wufei paused, glancing to the side as something white caught his eye. Turning to look down the narrow alley, Wufei nearly moved past what he assumed was some sort of discarded holiday decoration. But then the decoration moved. Egged on by a curiosity he had never, since he had been a young, naïve brat, been able to suppress, Wufei edged into the alleyway, crouching to peer at the white lump.

The bundle did not move again, and with a sinking feeling Wufei reached forward gently and attempted to move some of the nearby debris away, to get a closer look at the thing in the dim light; he was not terribly surprised to find that, uncovered, the white lump was in fact a scrawny, ragged excuse for an animal, a kitten. It wasn't white, it was grey and white, and extremely emaciated. Running a hand over its fur, Wufei was amazed to find the creature was still warm, and even breathing faintly; the thing was skeletal.

Not sure why he did it, good sense said the thing was probably disease riddled and likely to die within minutes, Wufei gathered the pitiful thing into his arms, ignoring the dirt that was smearing over his clothes. Walking with all the balance he possessed, Wufei made his way to his apartment, careful as he could be not to jostle the fragile thing in his arms. He opened his door one-handed, hardly even fumbling, and immediately set out to find all the things he would need for a kitten. His apartment was pretty barren; he didn't spend much time in it, usually, but he did manage to dig up a box, a spare blanket, and a hot water bottle. Getting the starved creature settled into the warmth was his first order of business, and once that was done, he returned to tearing his place apart, until he found an eye-dropper and had heated a formula of honey and milk.

During his scavenging Wufei had managed to lose his overcoat, vest, tie and shoes, leaving them strewn about his apartment in an uncharacteristic display of disorder. Sitting on the floor next to the box with its half-dead occupant, Wufei once again questioned the sanity of his quest. The kitten looked like it was more then ready to give up the ghost. Telling himself firmly that he wouldn't care if it did, that he was just doing something to occupy himself, and he'd take it to the pound in the morning, if it lived, Wufei used the eye-dropper and gentle fingers to coax a little of the milk and honey into the kitten, following it with a little water.

The Chinese Preventer was not quite prepared for what happened when the kitten had swallowed the last bit of water. A very soft, thready purr made its way from the box, rising and falling erratically, before dying down again. Wufei stared for a moment, then swallowed hard, setting the eye-dropper and milk mixture aside. "Don't get used to this treatment, beast." He informed the small creature abruptly.

That night Wufei pulled his covers and pillows off of his bed, setting up a makeshift nest next to the box where the kitten slept.

Wufei woke early on Christmas morning, with a sore shoulder, a testament to the hospitality of his floor as a sleeping space, and feeling distinctly disoriented to find himself on his living room floor. A glance to the side brought the Prevent awake enough, however, and within minutes he was preparing another milk and honey mixture to feed to the kitten, who, to Wufei's amazement, had somehow managed to survive the night.

The rest of Wufei's day was spent cleaning up the mess he'd made of the apartment the night before, and checking on the filthy, furry bundle in the box. He changed the hot water bottle a few times, fed the creature every so often, and gave it water more frequently. By the evening he was on the couch, reading, and the box was set up where he could glance in at it easily.

When he cuddled into bed that night, this time on the couch, Wufei made sure to inform his guest that it would only be staying until his two week's vacation was done with, and that it should be thanking Une for being a pushy bitch and making him take the Holiday leave time in the first place. When he was sure the kitten understood its station and situation, Wufei turned out the light and drifted into blackness.

The next two weeks progressed much the same as the first night and day had, only with remarkable improvement in the kitten's health. Wufei had finally decided it was well enough to lift and handle, when it had started trying to escape its box. After a quick check he determined that the creature was, in all probability, female, and he informed her that he was not at all surprised to learn this, since only a woman would be bloody-minded enough to persevere despite the odds against her, and against all common sense. After the first few box-escaping incidents Wufei bought her a cat little box, and managed to give her a patchy, warm-damp-washcloth bath. By the end of the second week, he had her consuming solids, though she still didn't move far or fast from her nest box, at least not for long periods of time.

On the Monday of the third week, Wufei was late to his office for the first time in the memory of any Preventer's agent.

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The distinct hush that accompanied Wufei's entrance, precisely twenty minutes later then when he was due, and forty minutes later then his normal arrival time, was quickly shattered by Duo's amazed, and teasing voice.

"Wuffie's got a girlfriend!"

"Nonsense Maxwell."

"I have to agree with Wufei, Duo." Trowa's voice piped up from one of the corner offices; immediately all eyes were on the tall man. "Not a woman in the world would put up with his attitude."

"True..." Duo grinned at Wufei, who was making his way to his own office and doing his best to ignore the stares of his co-workers. "But the only other explanation is he was abducted by aliens and they dropped him off late to work."

"I would suggest you as him for schematics on the UFO then." Trowa said mildly, a faint, curious smirk tugging at the edges of his mouth before he disappeared back into his own office.

Duo pestered Wufei for most of the morning, and while Wufei growled in all the appropriate places, the American could tell that his heart wasn't into their usual banter, and eventually left him alone, after a concerned look and an offer to talk. Wufei didn't mind Duo's teasing most of the time, he knew the American was as bored as he was with deskwork, and wasn't actually slacking, since Duo accomplished thrice the amount of a normal agent on any given day; Wufei himself took on more then was his required workload as a matter of habit. Still, he knew all their talents were better used in the field, and the lack of anything serious needing their attention was getting to all three ex-pilots. But for once, Wufei found he wasn't too frustrated with the desk work, and he was actually dreading any alarm that might pull him, Trowa and Duo onto a field mission. He credited the feeling to holiday doldrums and made a note to include more b vitamins and calcium in his diet.

By the end of the day, Wufei was done and heading out the door, on the clock, only to be stopped by a call from Duo. "Leaving so soon... Off to see your girl?"

A sarcastically raised eyebrow and a snort were the braided man's only answer, and Wufei was in the parking lot before he could hear more of Duo's teasing.

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Over the next few weeks Wufei's schedule included arriving late to work, getting teased by Duo, and occasionally Trowa, receiving questioning looks from Une, and returning home to nurse the kitten back to health.

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After the fourth week of the new office ritual, one in which Duo's theme of Wufei having a girlfriend became increasingly more insistent, Wufei actually paused to answer one of Duo's taunts, one involving him and his imaginary significant other.

"Yes, actually Maxwell, I am going home to see my girl." He chanced a glance sideways and was immensely satisfied to find that Duo's look was not only as pole-axed as he'd hoped it would be, but that Trowa was wearing a similar expression. Without further comment or harassment Wufei found himself home once again.

"So what's her name, 'Fei?" Duo asked the next morning, something Wufei would have predicted if he'd given it a second's thought, which he hadn't.

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"Name?" Chang was actually caught off guard by the question.

"Whoa. Now I don't even know if she's real to not! Name, you know, name!"

A slow, thoughtful smile crossed Wufei's face. "You know, perhaps you'd better meet her."

Duo stared for a moment, then rocked back on his heels. "You serious?"

"Yes. This afternoon. I think she's up for company. You may come too." Wufei inclined his head in the direction of Trowa's office; he couldn't' see the green-eyed man, but he knew Trowa was listening.

"... Alright! I have to meet this mystery girl! No backing out Fei! This afternoon, after work! Me and Tro are IN!"

"Good. Now leave me alone, I have actual work to do Maxwell."

"Heh. Sure, sure."

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"Okay, so where is she?" Duo poked his head around the doorway as Wufei entered the apartment. Both Trowa and Duo had been to the small flat before, but their visitations weren't regular occurrences.

"Mmm." Wufei murmured noncommittally, moving further into the room, allowing Trowa and Duo to follow, and shut the door. A few moments later a small, white and grey bundle of fluff dashed from the bedroom and stood in the hallway, staring curious and wide-eyed at the two strangers in her domain. "This, Maxwell," Wufei said, voice carefully neutral, eyes on the faces of his companions, "Is 'my girl.'"

Trowa was busy examining the small kitten, but Duo gave a satisfyingly shocked reaction. Though after about the fiftieth reiteration of "Fei has a _kitten_?!" and variations thereof, Wufei decided to snap the American out of it.

"Yes. I have a kitten. Would either of you like some tea?"

"Yes." Trowa answered, nodding towards Duo to indicate that the answer included the both of them.

Wufei moved to the kitchen while Trowa steered Duo to the couch.

By the time Wufei returned to the living room with the steaming mugs of mint tea, Duo was looking less likely to implode from sheer conflicting ideas, and the kitten was perched on Trowa, asserting the fact that she was queen of the apartment, and charming both brown-haired ex-pilots.

"So... What's her name?" Duo asked after a few quiet moments in which each took a few sips of tea and took turns scritching the grey and white kitten's ears.

"..." Wufei regarded the kitten for a moment, he'd never thought of a name for her; until that morning, he had still been attempting to convince himself that the kitten's stay in his domain was temporary. He realized he'd been deluding himself. But he hadn't thought of a name for his small housemate.

"'Fei?"

"Xin Xin."

"Huh?"

"Her name is Xin Xin."

Duo looked at the small bundle curled and purring on Trowa's chest, "What's it mean?" he asked softly.

"Faith."

"... That's a good name for her."


End file.
